Niqab, burqa and Extremism, النقاب والبرقع والتطرف by Jamil Shawwa

There is another subject that I am sure that I am not qualified to discuss, religions. To me religion is a private matter between a person and God or whomever this person believes in. I am and no other human on earth has the right or the qualifications to tell another human whom to believe or worship. Wars erupted through history and until now when groups of people or individuals have hijacked religions for their own purposes and agendas. In that process, those hijackers have used innocent and sometimes not so innocent humans to advance their usually political accords. Religion is a magic word all over the world that-if manipulated- make people sometimes listen with deaf ears and see with blind eyes, and follow without any logic or reason. People sometimes escape their daily frustrations or desperations into surrendering themselves to their saviors, usually manipulative people- who claim that they will in the name of God left them from their misery into a different world, an imaginary world. We are witnessing great divine religions being restructured by organizations that aim towards destructions and terror not for any purpose except for claiming that they are in the name of God sent to spread peace and justice on earth, by destruction, by terror. What compelled me to write now about this subject is the debate going on in places around the world regarding women covering their faces especially in open societies. As far as I am concern, there is no religion on earth that requires women to cover their faces, it is a choice to cover the hair or the head, a scarf or Hijab, or head cover but not the face. Covering the face or the whole face except for the eyes or even cover the eyes and have a little window for the woman so she can open her mouth and eat and breath has nothing to do with Islam or any other religion, it is brought by fanatics whose job is to spread ambiguity and whose job is to demean women in the name of God. We must in the Middle East start a new way of thinking- the majority of people are moderates but as usual, the voice of terror and destruction is louder- towards having responsible religious people that interpret the religions as religions and not as political documents. The place of religions is in the heart, in the worship places. Countries should refrain from using religions to identify themselves, fight others or just declare who is right or wrong. In our United States of America, freedom of religion is guaranteed in the constitution; we all can and do worship whomever we want. We still have here in the US as any country those fanatics that as in the Middle East tries to impose a political agenda in the name of religion, who kill doctors that perform abortion on women in legally abortion clinics- The constitution of the United States granted the right of women to choose, either to keep unborn or perform abortion, we have religious leaders who blast other religions. Therefore, the phenomenon again is universal because it relates to human behavior and human behavior is universal. We humans are the same in the very basics. I know that I am naive if I think this religion manipulation will ever seize to exist but I think it can be fought and it can be put under control. It will continue to exist as humans exist but again it can be managed and it can be less destructive. I do not drink- just an example- but my wife does and she has a wine cellar, I am exaggerating, just a cabinet, in the house. Is it my business, not really, do I care, not at all, except when I beg her to give me a bottle or two as presents to friends and she -as usual- refuses.